Furtive

Definition: Furtive

Furtive

Adjective

1. Marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed; "a furtive manner"; "a lurking prowler"; "a sneak attack"; "stealthy footsteps"; "a surreptitious glance at his watch"; "someone skulking in the shadows".

2. Secret and sly or sordid; "backstairs gossip"; "his low backstairs cunning"- A.L.Guerard; "backstairs intimacies"; "furtive behavior".

Date "furtive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Etymology: Furtive \Fur"tive\, adjective. [Latin expression furtivus, from furtum theft, from fur thief, akin to ferre to bear: compare to the French expression furtif. See Fertile.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Furtive

Synonyms: backstair (adj), backstairs (adj), lurking (adj), skulking (adj), sneak(a) (adj), sneaky (adj), stealthy (adj), surreptitious (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Concealment	Obreptitious, furtive, stealthy, feline; skulking; Verb: surreptitious, underhand, hole and corner; sly; (cunning).; secretive, evasive; reserved, reticent, uncommunicative, buttoned up; close, close as wax; taciturn.
Stealing	Adjective: thieving; Verb: thievish, light-fingered; furacious, furtive; piratical; predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial; raptorial; (rapacious).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Furtive

English words defined with "furtive": furtively ♦ lurking ♦ on the sly ♦ skulking, sneak, sneaky, spying, stealthy, surreptitious. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Furtive Fauna: A Field Guide to the Creatures Who Live on You (reference) Furtive Nudist (reference) Furtive Wall (reference) The Bald Trilogy: The Recollections of a Furtive Nudist; Pigspurt-Or Six Pigs from Happiness; Jamais Vu (reference) U.S.Immigration Policy and the Undocumented: Ambivalent Laws, Furtive Lives (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Title	Author	Quote
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	Joyce, James	The boys who had been painted walked about or stood still awkwardly, touching their faces in a gingerly fashion with their furtive fingertips.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Furtive" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.72% of the time. "Furtive" is used about 156 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	98.72%	154	25,326
Noun (proper)	1.28%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	156	N/A

Expressions using "furtive": a furtive glance ♦ furtive glance. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "furtive": furtive-looking.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "furtive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		vjedharak, vjedhacak (thievish), i fshehtë (backdoor, clandestine, close, colorable, colourable, confidential, cryptic, dark, deep, deep-seated, elfish, elvish, esoteric, hidden, hole-and-corner, insidious, internal, latent, occult, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, secret, secretive, sly, stealthy, subterranean, under the counter, under the table, under wraps, undercover, underhand, underhanded, unearthly, veiled), dinak (argute, artful, canny, crafty, cunning, daedalian, devious, leery, pawky, sleeky, sly, wily). (various references)

Arabic		‏ماكر (artful, crafty, cunning, deceitful, deep, designing, disingenuous, feline, foxlike, foxy, guileful, malicious, pawky, politic, scheming, sharper, slick, slim, sly, smart, subtle, trick, vulpine, wily), ‏نظرة عابرة (sneak), ‏سري (clandestine, classified, close, closet, confidential, covert, cryptic, discreet, hugger mugger, hush hush, inmost, low key, mysterious, mystic, occult, off the record, private, privy, sacramental, secret, slinking, stealthy, subterranean, surreptitious, umbilical, undercover, underground, underhand). (various references)

Bulgarian		скрит (cagey, cagy, clandestine, close, covert, delitescent, dormant, hidden, implicit, implied, insidious, latent, occult, potential, private, privy, recondite, secret, sneaking, snug, ulterior, underlying), лукав (astute, crafty, designing, feline, guileful, parlous, pawky, serpentine, sly, snaky, subtle, tricky, underhand, wicked, wily), потаен (cagey, cagy, covert, disingenuous, hush hush, inner, reserved, reticent, secret, secretive, sly, stealthy, subterranean, underhand), плах (faint, mousey, nervy, pigeon-hearted, pusillanimous, stealthy, timid, tremulous, wan). (various references)

Chinese		偷偷摸摸. (various references)

Czech		tajný (clandestine, classified, confidential, hole-and-corner, inward, occult, privy, restricted, retired, secret, sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover, underhand, underhanded, unspoken), potutelný (sly), kradmý (stealthy, surreptitious). (various references)

Finnish		salavihkainen (stealthy). (various references)

French		furtif, sournois, regard furtif. (various references)

German		verstohlen (covert, covertly, furtively, secret, shiftily, shifty, stealthy, surreptitious, surreptitiously). (various references)

Greek		κρυφόσ (covert, occult, privy, sneaking, surreptitious, undercover), φευγαλαίοσ, λαθραίοσ (clandestine, smuggled, stealthy, stowaway, surreptitious). (various references)

Hebrew		חומק� י (evasive). (various references)

Hungarian		titkos (clandestine, classified, confidential, covert, cryptic, esoteric, hidden, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hugger-mugger, hush hush, inner, lurky, mystic, occult, privy, secret, sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious, top secret, undercover). (various references)

Indonesian		diam-diam (quietly, secretly). (various references)

Italian		furtivo (slinky, stealthy, surreptitious). (various references)

Korean		은밀한 (Clandestine, Confidential, Covert). (various references)

Manx		sleetchagh (deceitful, hang-dog, lurking, slimy, sneaking), keillit (cloaked, concealed, covert, hidden, secreted, underground, veiled). (various references)

Norwegian		hemmelighetsfull, hemmelig. (various references)

Pig Latin		urtivefay

Portuguese		furtivo (sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious), escondido (close, hidden, hideaway, hush-hush, lam, offscreen, privy, secret, stealthy, ulterior), dissimulado (artificial, covert, disingenuous, indirect, larval, latent, masked, off-stage, secretive, sneaking, stealthy, underhanded). (various references)

Romanian		furiş (hidden, secret, stealthy, surreptitious), hoţesc (flash, roguish, stealthy, thievish), clandestin (clandestine, clandestinely, furtively, hugger mugger, illicit, privy, secret, secretly, surreptitious, surreptitiously, underhand), ascuns (abstruse, backstairs, blind, cagey, close, concealed, covert, cryptic, dark, hidden, masked, mystic, occult, postern, privy, q.t., quiet, recondite, secluded, secret, secretive, self contained, sneaking, stealthy, sunken, ulterior, uncommunicative, underground, underhand, undiscovered). (various references)

Russian		тайный (arcane, backdoor, clandestine, cryptic, dark, esoteric, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, offscreen, private, privy, quiet, secret, sly, sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious, under the table, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		tajni (backstage, private, privy, secret, sneaky, stealthy, undercover), skriven (cachectic, delitescent, dormant, hidden, hole-and-corner, secret, sly, sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious). (various references)

Spanish		furtivo (hole-and-corner, sly, sneak, sneaking, sneaky, stealthy). (various references)

Swedish		förstulen (covert). (various references)

Thai		ซึ่งลับๆ ล่อๆ (sneak). (various references)

Turkish		sinsi (cattish, catty, gloating, hole-and-corner, insidious, slinky, sly, snaky, sneaking, sneaky, underarm, underhand), kaçamak (casual, casually, escapade, evasion, evasive, hanky panky, loophole, run, running, salvo, shift, stealthy, subterfuge, surreptitious), kaçak (absconder, contraband, deserter, escape, escapee, fugitive, illegal, leak, leakage, on the lam, run, runaway, smuggled), hırsızlama (furtively, sneaking, sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious), gizli (arcane, back door, blind, camera, clandestine, classified, closet, concealed, confidential, covert, cryptic, cryptical, crypto-, disguised, esoteric, hidden, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, huggermugger, hush hush, inner, intimate, latent, masked, occult, perdu, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, restricted, sealed, secluded, secret, secretly, slinky, sneaking, sneakingly, sneaky, snug, stealthy, sub rosa, submerged, submersed, subterranean, subterraneous, surreptitious, ulterior, under cover, underarm, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded, undisclosed, unsearchable, unseen). (various references)

Ukrainian		скрадливий (cattish), злодійкуватий (light fingered, picking), прихований (arcane, blind, bosomed, close, closet, concealed, covert, cryptic, delitescent, glossy, hideaway, latent, obscure, obumbrate, occulted, privy, secret, stealthy, ulterior, underneath, veiled), потайний (hidden). (various references)

Vietnamese		trộm, ngấm ngầm (dormant), lén lút bí mật. (various references)

Welsh		lladradaidd (stealthy). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	furtivae, furtivus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	Job Chapter 4, Verse 12
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Ei de ti rhma alhqinon egegonei en logoiV sou ouqen an soi toutwn kakon aphnthsen poteron ou dexetai mou to ouV exaisia par' autou
Latin	405	Vulgate	Porro ad me dictum est verbum absconditum et quasi furtive suscepit auris mea venas susurri eius
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	But to me is seid a woord hid, and as theefli myn ere toc the veynes of his gruching.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a small sound of it.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	A word was given to me secretly, and the low sound of it came to my ears.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Job Chapter 4, Verse 12
Albanian	Një fjalë më ka ardhur fshehurazi dhe veshi im ka zënë pëshpëritjen e saj.
Cebuano	¶ Karon usa ka butang gitaho kanako sa tago, Ug ang akong igdulungog nakadawat sa usa ka hungihong niini.
Croatian	Tajna rijeè se meni objavila, šapat njen je uho moje èulo.
Danish	Der sneg sig til mig et Ord mit Øre opfanged dets Hvisken
Dutch	Voorts is tot mij een woord heimelijk gebracht, en mijn oor heeft een weinigje daarvan gevat;
Finnish	Ja minulle tuli salaa sana, korvani kuuli kuiskauksen,
French	Une parole est arrivée furtivement jusqu`� moi, Et mon oreille en a recueilli les sons légers.
German	Und zu mir ist gekommen ein heimlich Wort, und mein Ohr hat ein Wörtlein davon empfangen.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Pernah suatu wahyu sampai kepadaku, bagaikan bisikan halus dalam telingaku.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Pada sekali peristiwa suatu firman disampaikan kepadaku diam-diam, dan telingakupun sudah mencapai sedikit juga dari padanya;
Italian	A me fu recata, furtiva, una parola e il mio orecchio ne percepì il lieve sussurro.
Maori	¶ Na i kawea pukutia mai he korero ki ahau, a kapohia ana e toku taringa he komuhumuhu.
Norwegian	Og til mig stjal sig et ord; det lød for mitt øre som en hvisken,
Portuguese	Ora, uma palavra se me disse em segredo, e os meus ouvidos perceberam um sussurro dela.
Rumanian	Un cuvknt s`a furiwat pknq la mine, wi urechea mea i -a prins sunetele uwoare.
Spanish	Un mensaje me ha sido traído en secreto, y mi oído ha percibido un susurro de ello:
Swedish	Men till mig smög sakta ett ord, mitt öra förnam det likasom en viskning,
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "furtive": furtively, furtiveness, furtivenesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Furtive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: fertive, firative, forcive, fortiva, fourtie, frutive, furative, furgive, furitive, furive, furtibe, furticve, furtile, furtime, furtivel, furtiven, furtuve, futive. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "furtive" (pronounced fer"tiv)
4	-er" t i v	assertive.
3	-t i v	abortive, accommodative, accumulative, accusative, acquisitive, active, adaptive, addictive, additive, adjective, administrative, adoptive, affective, affirmative, alliterative, alternative, anticompetitive, appointive, appreciative, argumentative, assaultive, attentive, attractive, authoritative, automotive, captive, causative, cognitive, collaborative, collective, combative, commemorative, communicative, comparative, competitive, conductive, congestive, connective, consecutive, conservative, constructive, consultative, contemplative, contraceptive, cooperative, corrective, corruptive, counterproductive, creative, cumulative, curative, deceptive, decorative, defective, definitive, degenerative, deliberative, demonstrative, derivative, descriptive, destructive, detective, digestive, dilutive, diminutive, directive, disincentive, disparages, dispositive, disruptive, dissipative, distinctive, distributive, duplicative, effective, elective, elucidative, eruptive, evocative, executive, exhaustive, expletive, exploitative, exploitive, facultative, Federative, festive, figurative, fixative, formative, fugitive, generative, hyperactive, hypersensitive, illustrative, imaginative, imitative, imperative, inactive, inattentive, incentive, indicative, ineffective, infective, infinitive, informative, initiative, injunctive, innovative, inoperative, inquisitive, insensitive, instinctive, instructive, interactive, interpretive, introspective, intuitive, invective, inventive, investigative, irrespective, iterative, laxative, legislative, locomotive, lucrative, manipulative, meditative, motive, narrative, native, negative, neoconservative, nonautomotive, noncompetitive, noncumulative, nonexecutive, nonnative, nonproductive, normative, nutritive, objective, obstructive, octave, operative, overactive, palliative, participative, pejorative, perceptive, perspective, photoconductive, plaintive, positive, predictive, preemptive, prerogative, preservative, presumptive, preventative, preventive, primitive, proactive, probative, productive, prognosticative, prohibitive, projective, prospective, protective, provocative, punitive, putative, qualitative, quantitative, radioactive, reactive, receptive, reconstructive, recuperative, redemptive, redistributive, reflective, refractive, regulative, rehabilitative, relative, remunerative, rep, repetitive, representative, reproductive, respective, restive, restorative, restrictive, retroactive, retrospective, secretive, sedative, seductive, selective, sensitive, speculative, stimulative, subjective, substantive, suggestive, superconductive, superlative, supportive, talkative, tentative, ultraconservative, unattractive, uncompetitive, uncooperative, unimaginative, uninformative, unproductive, unreceptive, unrepresentative, vegetative, vindictive, vituperative.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-f-i-r-t-u-v"
	-1 letter: virtue.
	-2 letters: fiver, fruit, refit, rivet, uteri, vertu, virtu.
	-3 letters: etui, fire, five, fret, frit, reft, reif, rife, rift, rite, rive, tier, tire, tref, true, turf, vert, vier.
	-4 letters: eft, fer, fet, feu, fie, fir, fit, fur, ire, ref, rei, ret, rev, rif, rue, rut, tie, tui, vet, vie.
	-5 letters: ef, er, et, if, it.
	Words containing the letters "e-f-i-r-t-u-v"
	+2 letters: furtively.
	+3 letters: figurative, interfluve, unfavorite.
	+4 letters: furtiveness, interfluves, overfatigue.
	+5 letters: figuratively, interfluvial, overfatigued, overfatigues, overstuffing, putrefactive, unreflective.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.